


Heard It All Before

by Im_The_Doctor (Bofur1)



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Brotherly Bonding, Childhood Memories, Cuddling & Snuggling, Eventual Happy Ending, Family Fluff, Multi, Older Brother Raph, Thunderstorms, Young Turtles, fear of storms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-20
Updated: 2014-08-20
Packaged: 2018-02-13 22:14:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2167110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bofur1/pseuds/Im_The_Doctor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Serenity is finding peace and freedom while in Life's storms, not peace and freedom from Life's storms...and realizing it's not always about surviving Life's storms but more about learning how to dance in the rain. </p><p>However, when someone is a child, they need to be told in a way that's a bit more creative.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heard It All Before

Raphael looked up when he heard the familiar rumble, similar to boulders grating against each other as they rolled down a hill. Even muffled by layers of concrete sidewalk, the sound of the thunder in the sky managed to reach the turtles’ lair in the sewers.

Michelangelo’s hands snaked over the back of the couch and seized Raph’s shoulders, making him stiffen. “It was a dark and stormy night...” Mikey droned ominously, shaking Raph slightly as another boom sounded. “...and Raphael, hotheaded ninja warrior—”

“—was about to become even darker and stormier than what was goin’ on outside and rip off his little brother’s arms,” Raph growled, making Mikey recoil with satisfactory chagrin.

“Okay, okay, dude, yeesh. You need to lighten up! I felt how stiff you were just now, maybe you need—”

“—you to shut up? That’s a _great_ idea!” Raph snapped, baring his teeth in something more menacing than a smile.

“Raph, don’t be sour,” Donatello sighed as he entered the room with a bowl of popcorn. “If we’re going to be kept up all night with the noise, let it be the storm’s and not yours.” As Raph took an indignant breath to start shouting, Donnie put in, “You wanna watch movies?”

“Ooh, I choose first!” Mikey whooped, leaping for their movie collection. “ _The Goonies_!”

“Ugh, no,” Donnie complained. “We’ve watched that a thousand times. Why not _Ghostbusters_?”

“Like we haven’t watched _that_ a thousand times?” Mikey countered.

“What about _The Terminator_?” Raph suggested. He paused, thinking there would be a different suggestion quickly overriding his, but there was only silence. Turning to look over his shoulder, Raph called, “Hey, Leo, say your piece now if you’re against it.”

“Do whatever you want,” Leonardo responded quietly.

Suspicion stirred in Raph’s gut. Narrowing his eyes, he could just make out Leo in the shadows, sitting against the wall—no, _huddling_ against it. What was that about? Raph wondered for a moment just as thunder boomed overhead, louder than any of the others. While Donnie and Mikey looked upward toward the source of the noise, Raph had been looking at Leo. He’d seen him twitch at the noise, curling his knees up to his chest and locking his arms around them.

It was a familiar position, Raph recalled, concern washing away the suspicion. Setting his jaw, he rose to his feet and clambered over the back of the couch.

“Hey, Raph, I thought we were going to—” Mikey started to say.

Raph waved him off. “Yeh, yeh, just watch _Goonies_ or whatever for a bit, okay?”

Don and Mike glanced at each other but shrugged it off. Raph was tentative as he approached his older brother, wondering if his company would be welcome. Leo could be pretty venomous if he wanted to be left alone; Raph knew that better than either of the others.

Sinking down next to Leo, Raph mirrored his previous actions, bringing his knees up to his chest but settling his arms on top of them instead of around them. Clearing his throat tactfully, Raph asked in a low voice, “You alright, Leo?”

It was a stupid question—it was obvious he wasn’t alright—but it made Leo look at him. His dark eyes were glassy with anxiety behind his stark blue mask. “M’fine,” he murmured, an equally stupid answer.

Raph pursed his mouth, shifting slightly closer so their shoulders were touching. “Okay.” From there they sat in silence, everything that needed to be said communicated by the slight tremble of Leo’s arm against Raph’s.

They’d dealt with Leo’s fear of thunder a lot differently when they were kids...

~

Donnie startled, staring up at the ceiling and lisping horribly through his missing teeth as he gasped, “What wath that?!”

“It was only thunder, my sons,” Splinter soothed the four-year-olds. “Simply another part of the storm. We’ve heard it before, remember?”

“Yeh, but I dun’ like it,” Raph mumbled, slipping an arm around Mikey’s shoulders as the youngest turtle shivered. “Never ’ave. Too loud at bedtime.”

Splinter’s whiskers twitched as he smiled. “I agree, Raphael. Shall we sit and wait out the storm?”

The three brothers nodded eagerly, delighted with the idea of an unexpected cuddling time. Splinter gestured to the couch and they all ran, leaping and flopping down on the cushions as their father strode across the room to retrieve some warm blankets.

When he returned and sank down next to them, they all took their favored positions—Raph snuggled into the crook of Splinter’s left elbow while Donnie and Mikey each chose a knee on which to sprawl.

Raph was starting to get sleepy already, but he noticed something—someone—was keeping this from being perfect. “Where’s Lewo?” he asked, freezing a second later when a monstrous roar sounded from the faraway sky and a distressing scream sounded from a nearby bedroom.

“Leonardo!” Splinter called worriedly literally right before a fourth little green body burst out of the bedroom it belonged to, scrambling out into the general room and hurdling through the air into the blankets.

Raph grunted in surprise, discomfort, and annoyance as Leo crowded into his space. Reaching beneath the blanket, he shoved at whatever he could find of his brother. “Lewo, stoppit, this’s my spot!” His complaint trailed off abruptly when he found Leo’s cheeks and the tearstains wetting them. “Lewo?” Cupping Leo’s cheeks in his hands, Raph pulled gently until his brother’s head was poking out from under the blanket’s fold. His throat caught when he met terror-bright brown eyes with his own.

“Lewo?” Donnie and Mikey repeated Raph’s one-word plea anxiously. Their oldest brother didn’t answer, quivering wordlessly underneath their shocked stares.

At last, releasing pitiful little whimper/sobs between each word, Leo gulped, “Papa...I dun’ like the thunduh.”

“Does it scare you that badly?” Splinter looked aghast that he hadn’t noticed before. Carefully coaxing Leo further out from under the blanket, he questioned, “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“I’m s’posed to be brave,” Leo whispered as he curled up against their father’s chest—in Raph’s place, but the second oldest didn’t object.

“It’s perfectly normal, perfectly alright to feel fear, my son, but sometimes you mustn’t face it alone,” Splinter tried to protest, cut off by another thunder crack that made Leo yelp and shove his thumb in his mouth for comfort.

 _He must be really scared_ , Raph realized. Leo had been desperately trying to break the thumb-sucking habit and for him to fall back on it so hastily...

“Don’t worry, Lewo,” he said suddenly, trying to work his way closer. “After th’ rain stops, I’ll go get ’em for you.”

“Who?” Leo snuffled around his thumb.

“Papa’s friends,” Raph answered, frowning at their father as though he were to blame. “They’re happy cos someun’ won a fight match an’ they’re bein’ too loud when they’re cheerin’, see? So once it’s not wet an’more, I’ll go an’ tell ’em to be quiet.”

Leo’s thumb loosened a little as he started, “Why...?” Then he changed his mind. “Who won the fight match?”

Raph paused. “Um, you did. Or you will. See, they’re from th’ future when eve’body likes you cos you’re a really great ninja an’ you’re really brave and can beat anybody up who tries to beat you up.”

The faintest glimmer of a smile quirked Leo’s mouth and Raph sped on. “Yeh, we’re all ninjas and when we work together, nothin’ can scare us.”

“So they like us too?” Mikey piped up excitedly.

Raph nodded vigorously, making his brothers talk over each other about how great they were going to be.

“So Papa,” Raph concluded, scowling sternly once more. “You tell ’em we hafta sleep, okay? They’re not allowed to scare Lewo right b’fore sleepin’.”

“Very well,” Splinter consented, completely willing to be scolded by his second eldest. Lifting his head, he called to the ceiling, “Please keep the noise down.”

It may have been in their imaginations or it may have been a miracle, but the storm suddenly seemed a bit gentler.

“Thank you,” Leo whispered and even though he was looking upward, Raph had a feeling he was talking to him. This made him move closer, hugging his brother’s neck as they finally began to relax. Right before he let himself drift off, Raph reached over and gently pulled Leo’s thumb out of his mouth. Leo was asleep already, so he didn’t notice.

~

“It’s gonna be fine, bro,” Raph whispered, rubbing his elbow against Leo’s. “They’re cheerin’ for you.”

Leo was silent, watching Donnie and Mikey squabble over the TV remote, but Raph saw his shoulders set back a little straighter and knew he remembered.

After a long moment Leo rose to his feet, holding out a hand to help Raph up also. His eyes were just a tad clearer than they’d been before and that put Raph at ease—that and the call Leo aimed at their younger brothers as they approached.

“Hey, keep the noise down, would you?”


End file.
